Three Bridges first team suffered a narrow two-wicket defeat to fellow promoted side Cuckfield at the Barker/Meads ground on Saturday.
Bridges skipper Danny Alderman won the toss and decided to bat first on what looked like a good pitch, but the Bridges batsmen were not able to take advantage.
Alderman said: “We should have got way more than 133 runs. Six guys made good starts and should have gone on to make a good innings. We should have got around 200.
“There may have been an element of rustiness but we got out through bad batting rather than good bowling. We have had plenty of practice so we can’t really be using that as an excuse.”
Conor Golding (7) was the first to go, getting a good ball from ex-Bridges bowler Nick Patterson which removed his off-stump.
Usman Khan (14) played some nice shots until he played one too many off Patterson, getting caught at mid-off.
This pattern continued throughout the innings with debutante Atif Elahi (11), overseas player Victor Davies (18) and Alderman (19) all making starts but then got out to balls that they shouldn’t have.
Ollie Blandford (16) showed the necessary application that the top order batsmen failed to do, but sadly no-one could else to stay with him for long enough to build up a big score as Bridges surrendered meekly for 133 all out, Patterson taking 4-51 and overseas spinner Keshar Maharaj taking 4-26.
Bridges knew they would have to bowl and field extremely well if they were to have a chance of winning the game, and that’s exactly what they did. Ollie Blandford made the breakthrough, trapping Cummins LBW for 4 with the score on 10.
Another ex-Bridges player Chris Mole and Oliver Altendorf then put on the highest partnership of the game with 49, before Davies struck a double-blow, having Altendorf caught behind for 33 by Tom Blandford, then overseas Maharaj slogging one straight up in the air, well caught by Mike Rose.
Mole then chipped Davies to Alderman for 25 and when Rose trapped Hough LBW for 3, the score was 72-5 and Bridges had a sniff.
Gardner and Wynter were soon dispatched by Davies, leaving Cuckfield reeling at 79-7. Tom Mole and skipper James Robinson held Bridges at bay for a while. But when Alderman trapped Mole LBW for 21 with the score on 109 for 8, it looked like Bridges may pull off a famous win.
However, Patterson (14) and Robinson (15) had other ideas, and managed to take Cuckfield home with two wickets to spare.
Bridges can be proud of the way they fought in the field and the bowling was good, Davies taking the honours with 5-57, but more application will be needed from the batsmen to give the bowlers more of a chance in future games.